Thinking about quality
What is common between Daewoo running three types of buses on some routes and Beacon House opening three types of schools? Why do some vendors of lawn sell their product…
Perhaps the Houbaras would approve
There’s always the brighter side of things. A bit of Arab anger following our waffling but intrinsically sound stand on Yemen may hold the promise of some good. If this…
Move towards better policymaking
According to a recent analysis of Scimago, the world’s leading database of scholarly literature and analytics, Pakistan has witnessed remarkable advancements in the last twenty years in international research rankings…
Commercializing research
A study of Scopus, the world’s most comprehensive, multidisciplinary database of scholarly literature, data, and analytics reveals astonishingly positive figures about the progress made in the quality and quantum of…
How the US sees us
Prof Fred Hayward, an eminent US education expert, recently published a book titled ‘Transforming Higher Education in Asia and Africa’. One chapter of this book is devoted to Pakistan, and…
Scholarly woes
Rigid conformity to formal rules has made life difficult for scholars wishing to obtain a PhD degree from public-sector universities in Pakistan. This is mainly because of procedural delays. Having…
Economic fallout
What ails Pakistan’s economy? It won’t be an exaggeration to say that this question requires a doctoral-level thesis even to summarise the argument. Economic experts have varying views on it,…
Climate science struggles with ‘blind spots’ in developing nations
This month’s hard-hitting report from the UN climate science panel sounded the alarm on the surging impacts of global warming - but its authors and independent researchers said it did…
Higher education ravaged
The HEC policies during the last three years led to a mushroom growth of 50 new universities, while simultaneously the programmes to develop highly qualified faculty were curtailed. Some 8,000…
PhD policy beyond comprehension
THE new PhD policy devised by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) has been rightly dubbed flawed and directionless by educationists and academia alike. Allowing direct entrance to PhD after a…
